


Somebody's kid

by orphan_account



Category: Justice League - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 00:23:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20330971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Martha Kent calls his son, no matter where he is.And he calls back every chance he gets.Because Superman is still somebody's kid.





	Somebody's kid

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is 1000% inspired by the song " Somebody's kid" by Jax

The first time Martha Kent calls, Green Lantern is on the watch on the Justice League ship.  
"Incoming transmission from Earth, sector 2814" the disincarnated voice of the ship interface says.   
His first though is that it's a threat. Something happened on Earth, someone is calling for help.   
"Hello is there somebody?"   
He doesn't recognize the voice and his second thought is that this is a ruse, a trap of some sort.   
"Green Lantern speaking, who are you?"  
"Oh... I am... Is Superman around?"  
Green lantern frowns at the console in front of him. No image is displayed on the computer screen, only a green dot moving with the voice of whoever is calling from across the universe. If this is a trap... He sends a comm to Superman with one hand, trying to find the command to track the call back to its exact location on earth with the other hand.   
"Who's asking?"  
"His mother."  
He chuckles. "Bad luck buddy, Superman's mother is long gone, so unless you're calling from Krypton's afterlife..."  
He does not expect the clap back. He does not expect a call from so far away could convey such harsh admonishment.   
"Next time you see him, ask him who changed his diapers. And tell him his mom called."  
The call stops in a rush of white noise before Green Lantern manages to source it.   
When Superman actually comes back to the ship, he tells him about the call and the kryptonian laugh.   
"Don't take it personally; she's not used to people not answering her demands."  
"She sounds... stern."  
"She's not actually. Well... most of the time. I'll try to call her back."  
Superman leaves the room and a mildly confused Green Lantern with an amused Batman next to him.  
"Don't worry Lantern. His mother scares everyone."  
"Even you?"   
Batman nods. "Robin once suggested to bring her to Gotham to admonish Bane. I might have entertained this idea ever since."

**  
There is a porthole in Superman's cabin. It opens to a black and empty sky. There is no milky way up here to gaze at. Smallville has never felt this far away than now, looking at the void of the universe, trying to make a call home that will not be answered. He cuts the connexion with a sigh. 

**  
The second time Martha Kent calls, Wonder Woman is the only one awake in the ship and the feminine voice is like music to the Amazon's voice. Sometimes, she grows tired of deep masculine voices trying to outperform each other on League meetings. Like anyone could ever top Batman and his modulator at that game... And lately, there has been a lot of arguments about their current mission.  
"Hello, is there someone there?"  
"Wonder Woman speaking, how may I help you?" She asks, already knowing the answer. No one can call this ship. This ship does not even have any device close to a telephone. But somehow Martha Kent managed to reach them twice; which gives her even more of an aura than the fairytales Green Lantern has been telling about her (something about her scaring the director of Arkham Asylum). Flash and Cyborg both tried to explain to them how the old woman managed to call them but Diana could not explain it back even under a spell.   
"Is Superman around?"  
"He is madam, just currently sleeping, I'll go wake him up."  
"No, no" Martha cuts her "Let my boy rest. Is he doing fine?"  
"He's good."  
"And how about the rest of you my child?"   
Diana smiles, it's been a long time since someone called her child, but from Martha's point of view, even an immortal amazon is a child.   
"We're all fine thank you."  
"Tell him I called. Tell him I love him."  
"I will Madam."

**  
There is no season on this planet. Every day is a war that everyone is losing and nothing the League has done up to now has had any effect on the situation.   
Superman is tired and there is no pacific issue in sight. The inhabitants of this planet plan to extend their war to the rest of the galaxy and the League still doesn't know why. Not that it really matters at this point.   
It's around the beginning of Summer in Smallville if his calculations are exact. He's missing the fourth of July, the campfires and the fireworks for a planet who lives only for war.   
He misses home. 

**  
The third time Martha calls, her voice ends up directly into Cyborg earing system, making twelve percent of his interface freeze. He lets out a very inelegant swear word as he reconfigures himself quickly.   
"Hello is there someone?"   
His system is automatically running tests and tracking the call back to Earth, he already knows who's speaking and shuts the search before it can triangulate more than the USA. He doesn't need nor want to know where Superman mother is. It's a sensitive information that he would rather not know than risk to disclose.   
"You've reached Cyborg."  
"Oh, I hope I did not intrude too much."  
"He told you about me." Cyborg smiles, eyes on his optical display that shows the time of automatic recording of the call.   
"He told me you had a computer in your brain or something... and that you can do amazing things I did not understand."  
"May I ask how you reached me?"  
"Lucky accident, I've been trying to reach you for days... I have a device that... I dunno, it bounces my call through satellites and spaceships until it reaches you? It works, but I don't know how."  
Her constrained voice makes Cyborg laugh.   
"I'm sorry madam but Superman is... Not reachable right now."  
Clark is down there, on a mission in a planet that is like hell but worse. And Cyborg came close to death enough that he actually knows what he's talking about. And there is no force on the universe that will make him admit to Superman's mother that he fears for her son's life.   
But she hears it in his words and the answer takes so long to reach him that he wonders if the connection has been lost.   
"He's strong you know."  
"The strongest."  
"Tell him his mother called, and I love him and the..." She abruptly cuts herself. Cyborg can almost hear her rephrase her sentence to not disclose anything to him or whoever might hear them. "His dog misses him, and I do miss him too."  
"I'll tell him."  
It's a strange thing to mention the dog, but maybe it's a code between them. Or maybe she just wanted to take the conversation away from Superman's safety... He looks through the vast windshield of the ship into space, and, thousands of kilometers above him, a planet that might be Superman's and half the League's grave.   
The call ends as he takes the solemn decision that this awful place will not be the last thing Superman sees.   
Superman will see his mother and his dog again. He clenches his fist and sends a comm to Batman and Superman "Change of plans."

**  
Superman is on the verge of tears. Not from the pain even though it's excruciating, running through his body in neverending waves that burn and pull and tear at his whole being. It's the dead people. The dead children.   
They have pets here. Strange creatures that emit blue light as a manner of speaking and cuddle with people who hurt.   
There is a possibility of peace on this planet; but it's being destroyed systematically because it's common belief for these people that peace is doom (Or at least that's what he understood.) hence the neverending war.   
They even killed the stars above them and there is only so much Superman can witness without feeling hopeless and lost.   
He's supposed to be a beacon of Hope. Batman tells him every day that it's what he stands for, why he's so precious for this diplomatic mission.   
But it's not enough, whatever beacon he is had been swallowed by all of this.   
He storms away from the League endless meeting and finds a shelter behind a bush. A sad thorny thing with no leaves trying to grow on sterile land. He almost collapses from exhaustion and sadness and pain. Rao knows how long it takes before a hand land on his shoulder and Batman sits next to him. His black outfit clashes in the reddish brown that is this land.   
"We are winning this war you know."  
"We were not supposed to fight on this mission." Superman hisses.   
"No one is happy about it. But sometimes, a fight is what it takes to end a war."  
Superman grunts because he doesn't have it in him to form words that would not be unnecessarily harsh to his friend.   
"Your mom called. Again."  
"She always does." The tears are here now. He can endure a lot, but the mention of anything soft, anything he longs for, is enough to break him these days.   
"We are the lucky ones here."   
Superman shoots Batman a curious look and the man stares back at him through the lenses of his cowl. He hasn't shaven in weeks, he was hurt in a previous battle, Superman can see the broken ribs and sprained ankle that makes his friend limp and clench his teeth more often than usual.   
"We have people to come back to." He turns his eyes to the natives of this planet, thousands of creatures trying to learn what peace means, even at the cost of many lives. "They don't even know what it feels... we're the lucky ones."  
Superman nods. It does not fuel him with any mighty will to end this chaos, but it helps a little, somehow. 

**  
The fourth time Martha tries to reach his son is not a good time for a call.   
Batman is the only one allowed out of the medic bay, and it's only because someone has to check for the ship while Cyborg literally recharges his batteries. No one actually gave him the permission to wander through the ship, but no one is awake to keep him from doing anything, and he needs the time alone even if it hurts.   
He's past the point of pain to be honest, he's been suffering for so long that he starts to forget what it's like not to feel like his flesh is tearing apart. The voice startles him enough that he probably teared a few stitches.   
"Hello, is there someone here?"  
Batman grunts and leans against the door of the control room of the ship. His vision is blurry, his head spin and hurts a the same time and he feels like he's about to pass out if he closes his eyes.   
"Superman?"  
"Off the grid." Batman croaks, trying not to cough. "Batman speaking."  
"Batman it's..."  
"I know who you are." His throat hurts, his broken ribs make it hard to speak.   
"How is he... How are you all doing?"  
Badly. They're all doing badly, this is the answer but saying it might make it come true so Batman doesn't answer. Maybe she will hang up. Maybe she will believe that the connection has been lost.   
"How is my kid Bruce?"   
He winces at his name. Part of him tells him that this line is not secure. Even the device he gave to Martha is not secure enough for such a long distance. Anyone on the galaxy might be listening. And he doesn't give a single care. He's too exhausted, too anxious to give a shit anymore.   
"You know him. He always wins."   
His eyes feel like someone rubbed them with sand everytime he closes them, stumbling toward the nearest chair pulls at both his legs, he collapses on the seat with a cry of pain barely suppressed. He's bleeding through his bandages. Diana will be annoyed at him.   
There is a long enough silence for him to turn on the security feed of the medical bay. A row of bodies on beds in various stages of healing all of them monitored, their vitals simultaneously showing on a screen next to them and on the screen of the control pannel.   
"He always wins." He whispers again, trying to make it true, trying to believe it. Clark's vitals are ... they still exist but barely. He's like a drained battery. He saved them all, once again, he saved the entire planet and they ended the neverending war, but at what cost...   
"Tell him I called." Martha says from across the stars. Her voice bounces back on the metallic walls and around Batman spinning head. "Tell him I'd like to have him to celebrate harvest season."   
"I will." He groans weakly. It was a mistake to get out of bed. He has tunnel vision; he's about to throw up in his hands.   
"And I'd like to have you for harvest season too my boy."  
He closes his eyes; his entire body burns, he can't say if he's bleeding or crying at this point. He just can't breathe anymore.   
"I'd like to come."  
"Be safe."  
He faints or the call is cut, he doesn't know. 

**

It takes so long to heal... Superman is not used to have to wait, to rest, to be patient. Neither are his team mates. It makes things worse because he should be the one looking over them, not almost comatose in something soft. He should be able to decipher their heartbeat, their breathing, he should be able to hear or see any damage, any threat to his friends. He sees only black behind his closed lids, and soon enough, he's sleeping again. 

He barely feels a hand pressing his, a whisper in his hear like a long forgotten dream. 

"I'm watching over you."

His mother used to tell him that. 

"Your mother called. She loves you."

He tries to press the hand back, but he can't. His mind is foggy and his body weights a few hundred tons but he knows deep down, that he'll be fine. He has a call to make as soon as possible. 

**

The fifth time Martha calls...   
"Hello? Is there someone here?"   
Superman smiles, looking straight at the yellow sun through the window.   
"Yes Ma."  
" CLARK!" she yells, and it feels to him almost as if she's here hugging him. "I've been so worried! How are you ? Are you coming back? What's happening? Are you alright?"She babbles questions long unanswered, and he would laugh if it would not hurt him so much.   
"I am... Recovering. None of us are in immediate danger anymore."  
Silence can convey so many things between people who love another that he doesn't need her to say anything to get her relieved sigh.   
"We're making our way back to Earth... It's a little slow because Cyborg keeps draining the ship energy to restore himself. I'm afraid I won't make it for harvest season."  
"Batmant told you I called."  
"He did not. I listened to the recordings."It's not entirely true. Somehow he remembers a tired voice telling him his mother loves him and a shaky hand in his. He knows no it was not a dream or a drug induced hallucination. Bruce delivered the message before he passed out, days ago.   
"How is he?"  
Superman turns to the security feed on the screen of the pilot room.   
"He's holding on. He's too stubborn to die."Bruce watched over him as he recovered and exhausted himself in the process, now, every league member watches upon him, sometimes using force to keep him in bed, to force him to rest.   
"Good."  
There is a long silence a comfortable one, knowing his mother can hear him is like she's close to him.   
"Thank you for calling that often Ma."  
"Sorry I kept missing you."  
"Don't be, you're kind of a legend on this ship now."  
"Am I? For what?"  
Clark smiles. "It's good to hear someone from home I think."  
"I might call more often then."  
"Please do."  
A little planet starts to rise, so far away that even Clark and his super vision can barely decipher it.   
"We're almost home Ma."  
"I'll make your favorite dish."  
"Thanks."  
"And bring your friends."  
"Yes Ma."


End file.
